Nuremberg Rally Site - I Stole From the Third Reich

Nuremberg. 2014.

I must have seen this place a thousand times in books and documentaries. Every time Hitler's rise to power or his hold on the German people was mentioned anywhere, they showed him speaking to a sea of people here.

This felt like a million miles away from me. I could not imagine that many people in one place, even though I had seen the footage. The only thing I could compare it to was looking down from the cheap seats at a swaying sea of people, whilst watching the Red Hot Chilli Peppers at a stadium gig in Cardiff at the tender age of 15.

Nuremberg's rally site is always somewhere that I wanted to visit. I wanted to stand where people looked up at Hitler whilst he spoke. I wanted to stand on Hitlers podium and look out at the vastness. Perhaps get a whiff of what it was like to be a man of power for a moment. I wanted to catch a glimpse of how it was to get caught up in something like that.

 2014. I finally visited. This was easily at the top of my list of places to visit. The rally site featured heavily in the film 'Triumph of the Will', a propaganda film showing Hitler in some omnipotent light overlooking his faithful followers and powerful army.

In the Third Reich, things weren't done by half.

My brother and I walked from Nuremberg Old Town to the site which took us a couple of hours. Travelling on a budget doesn't permit for luxuries such as public transport. We passed the lake and looked up at the nearby Colosseum. As we walked around, we spotted it across the water. It was impressive to me because of how much I had seen it in pictures and the context of it. I felt a bit starstruck to be honest. That place I have seen so many times was right there in front of me. It felt like I was about to sit on the sofa in Central Perk, on the set of the sitcom 'FRIENDS'.

As we neared it, I blindly headed straight for the empty podium. It was quite a surreal experience to be stood right there. I just looked out for a bit and tried to imagine it how it used to be. I had a picture on my phone of Hitler in the exact spot. I compared the picture from then and now. I wasn't sure if what I was looking at was a reflection or through a window of some strange time where common sense was lost.

Instead of looking out to a mass of people, there was an empty athletics track behind a fence. I had a good look around. The place was crumbling and there were weeds poking out of the steps. Badly drawn graffiti lay sporadically across the cracked slabs.

Albert Speer was Hitler's chief architect. He drew this place up and it was partly built in 1937 where there lay a wooden Eagle atop the structure. By the time it was finished in 1938 there were grand pillars each side of the structure and a huge golden swastika looming over from the top. This thing was supposed to last a thousand years yet in under a hundred it was in ruins.

In the late Sixties and into the Seventies, the pillars were removed and various other parts of the main structure was also dismantled as it was a safety hazard. When the Americans arrived in Nuremberg in 1945, they blew up the huge Swastika. They held a huge celebration there to celebrate the capture of the city.

At the height of Nazi power I imagine it was an inconceivable notion to think that the devoted followers and military displays on the Zeplinfeld would be replaced by invading Allied Soldiers, and then even more so down the line, me.

The site had completely lost its grandeur physically although the scale of it all held some resonance.

There is talk of the site being removed completely and also talk of renovation, such is the conflict of the people of the surrounding areas. Preservation of history is important but where does one draw the line when its history that wants to be forgotten?

Locals use the place to walk their dogs. Couples romantically feed ice cream to each other on the steps and there was even an amateur photo shoot going on as we were there. The place has lost its significance. Now it's just somewhere that people go. A different generation of people not even considering the backwards ideals of such a regime.

There are 34 structures circling the Zeplinfeld which divided the stone seating, which is now covered in grass almost completely. These structures were used as toilets. Large flags brandishing the Swastika flew proudly from the top. Today, these are rented out to people for storage. As we walked by one of them there was a band practising.

Structures that circle the Zeplinfeld. Toilets no more.

The rally site remains my favourite place that I have visited with regards to sites of the Third Reich. I'm not sure I will ever top that.

Bits were falling off all over the place and I took a tiny piece that lay on the floor. I stole from the Third Reich.

 

 

The structure is in a state of disrepair. 

The site in all its glory. This particular set up was referred to as the 'Carnival of Lights'. This would have been a pretty impressive thing to see in person.

Looking to the left whilst on the podium. In the immediate points around the podium would have stood high ranking German officers and the steps would have been filled with soldiers.